Developers commissioned a little over 45GW of onshore wind turbines globally in 2018 compared with 47GW a year earlier. Just four manufacturers accounted for more than half, or 57%, of the machines deployed: Denmark’s Vestas, China’s Goldwind, GE Renewable Energy of the USA and Spain’s Siemens Gamesa.The latest data from BloombergNEF (BNEF) show that Vestas extended its lead in the industry, with 10.1GW of its onshore turbines commissioned in 2018 – a global market share of 22% compared with 16% in 2017. China’s Goldwind rose from third to second place, lifted by a strong performance in China, where it captured a third of the 19.3GW market. The company’s global footprint, however, remains limited: only 5% of Goldwind’s 6.7GW were commissioned outside China. GE came third with 5GW – six out of every ten GE turbines were commissioned in the USA. Both GE and Vestas commissioned just over 3GW in the USA. Siemens Gamesa dropped from second to fourth place, with 4.1GW commissioned in 2018. This is 40% less than in 2017, although the tally does not include a number of very large wind farms that are only partially built and will not come online until 2019.
Chinese manufacturers rely almost solely on their home market. Of the European onshore wind turbine makers which make the top 10, Vestas and Nordex actually commissioned more capacity in the Americas than in Europe. Most of Enercon’s turbines are in Europe. Siemens Gamesa is the most diversified, with a near equal split across Europe, the Americas and Asia.
In offshore wind, it’s been a record year for China. Some 1.7GW of the global 4.3GW was commissioned in China. In Europe it was a tight race between Siemens Gamesa and MHI Vestas. GE has some projects coming up in France, and it is also expected to see orders for their new 12MW platform.
Total onshore wind installations in 2018 were 11.7GW in the Americas, 8.5GW in Europe and 1GW in Africa and the Middle East, while Asia accounted for 24.2GW. BNEF registered new wind farms starting full commercial operation in 53 countries.